Warlords of Draenor Developer Interviews
There were a few developer interviews at the recent press events, so today we are taking a look at an interview with Alex Afrasiabi from games.on.net.

There is no guarantee that all character models will be done by release, but they hope to have most ready.

The biggest thing stopping players from coming back is leveling.

As the game got older, more and more content was added, which makes it harder for people to catch up when they return.

Having to deal with all of the other things that are a part of coming back to the game along with leveling is too much for some people.

When you come back to the game and use a boost, your bars are cleared, talents unlearned,

The team also looked at significantly increasing experience rates rather than offering a boost, but it didn't feel great and the boost was the better option.

Warlords of Draenor - New Blingtron
It looks like Engineers will be getting a new Blingtron in Warlords of Draenor, but not a new mount.

Official Class Roles Forums Closing (EU)

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Hello everyone,

So that player discussions remain concentrated in existing forums where they receive more attention from other players, we have made the decision to retire the following forums. These forums will be deactivated next week:

In preparation for their final closure, these forums will remain accessible in Read Only mode, but will be removed permanently on 8 April 2014. If you wish to save any relevant information, please do so before then.

Blue Tweets

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

ClassesWill New Veng buff self heals? Dev team's goal for value of Bonus Armor vs other stats (situational or always good)?
Yes, it'll buff self heals. Bonus Armor is always good, except the extremely rare case where you're taking no physical damage. (Celestalon)Or the damage bypasses armor.I think having physical-flagged damage that bypasses armour is a silly design. Just use magic to do it.
Not at all. Bleeds, sonic spells, etc... All totally make sense as non-magic but not reduced by armor. (Celestalon)OK I'll give you those! But what about things like Malkorok's Blood Rage. It is an obvious physical weapon attack.
Balance. We don't want to hit clothies harder than plate/shield wearers for that. (Celestalon)

haste, that you'd get the 84 damage in exactly 14 seconds, with the partial tick appearing 14.0s after cast (6 DPS).
Yes, duration never changes. You'll get the partial tick at 14sec after cast. DPS won't have breakpoints. (Celestalon)Are you still planning to give everyone a Pandemic mechanic?
Yes, but 130% duration max, not 150%. (Celestalon)So if you recast way before the first partial tick, will you end up with "queued" partials?
No, partial ticks are only when the dot falls off before its' next scheduled tick. (Celestalon)

Warlords of Draenor Statsdo you know how current dodge/parry stats on items will be changing in 6.0? Should I stockpile them "just in case"?
They'll be replaced with other useful stats. (Celestalon)

I knew that Cleave got dropped. I thought socket/multistrike/readiness were all rare 'bonus tertiaries' in WoD. Got a source?
No, Multistrike and Readiness are full, legitimate secondary stats, like Haste/Crit/Mastery. Socket is a bonus tertiary. (Celestalon)still wondering how you're gonna make Multistrike appeal to tanks.
Been working on that recently. Nothing to announce yet, but it'll be spec-specific passives that interact with multistrike. (Celestalon)so things like grand crusader, revenge, Crimson scourge?
Yeah, that style of ability (though different effects). (Celestalon)

Does everyone have a baseline level of Multistrike / Readiness, like Crit & Mastery, or is it possible to have 0, like Haste?
Zero baseline. (Celestalon)

PvEHow were Large Anima Golems supposed to be used in the Dark Animus encounter, especially on heroic?
To buy you more time on the enrage. But they ended up being too dangerous/disruptive to make it worth the benefit. (WatcherDev)

Could some indication that a spell is armor ignoring physical be added to the DJ? It is occasionally unclear.
It's certainly something we can do a better job of calling out when it comes to tank mechanics. (WatcherDev)

PvPWill we see any balance changesonce the new PvP Gear shows its full effect ?
Perhaps. At this point we will only be able to do hotfixes which limits our options. (holinka)

Any chance we could see TB and WG put in as 40v40 BGs so they are full?
More focused on building Ashran. WG and TB had their time to shine. It would take a lot of work to restore them properly. (holinka)

Hard to get conquest losing in flag cap RBGs compared to losing in an AB-style RBG. Intended? Flag cap = so black and white.
It's the nature of CTF. You're comparing a map with a score of 3 to a map with a score of 1600. (holinka)

Warlords of DraenorAny plans on making Thorim soloable for everyone?
Changed in 6.0: Thorim won't trigger the deathball/reset when his arena is empty. (WatcherDev)Valithria is soloable, not sure what is wrong.
By, say, a warrior? Probably just going to make her skippable. (WatcherDev)Yeah, that was a joke (coming from a healer), but great to hear Ulduar/ICC are getting a look - how about Vezax?
What's the concern with Vezax? (WatcherDev)Yeah, Vezax and the trash leading up to him won't be there. Need to soft reset.
Fixed that also (in 6.0). Thanks. Could happen if you killed one of the Keepers very quickly. (WatcherDev)

The game will be released in december and not even with all new models? WTF blizzard! you are fooling everyone then with your "new models at game release " campaing publicity! what a shame . Blizzard is now full of liars and lazy fucks!

The game will be released in december and not even with all new models? WTF blizzard! you are fooling everyone then with your "new models at game release " campaing publicity! what a shame is Blizzard is now full of lazy fucks!

It says Fall of 2014. So probably not December. I'm guessing either October or November.

I hope they have models done at release, but I also dont want them to delay it for them.

I think it is more of a precaution, like the models should be done by release. But incase they aren't they can go back & say they never said they would all be done. When they really should all be done in time. Mostly just a covering ass thing, incase something happens.

It says Fall of 2014. So probably not December. I'm guessing either October or November.

Doesn´t care, they are selling this expac with the new characters as a plus, so don´t having them for the release is an illegal move at least in Europe(selling things with misleading adversiting), they are fooling the clients with that publicity!

The game will be released in december and not even with all new models? WTF blizzard! you are fooling everyone then with your "new models at game release " campaing publicity! what a shame . Blizzard is now full of liars and lazy fucks!

Blizzard sure as hell is not full of "lazy fucks". There's a shit-ton of work that needs to be done on the models and they'll be done when they're done. No one from Blizzard has ever said they'd be ready when WoD launches. They've said they hope for that, the same as they said here.

Wonder if that's just the EU role forums. They do seem a lot less active than the US ones. The whole idea was GC's pet project I think, to collect feedback while minimizing the echo chamber effect on class forums

Wonder if that's just the EU role forums. They do seem a lot less active than the US ones. The whole idea was GC's pet project I think, to collect feedback while minimizing the echo chamber effect on class forums

I don't think 'more and more content' makes it harder for former players to come back. It's that it's more of the same content, which isn't that interesting to certain people.
Wow hasn't changed that much in all those years.
Add things that significantly change/improve existing gameplay, and they might get somewhere. Wod looks promising though.

The game will be released in december and not even with all new models? WTF blizzard! you are fooling everyone then with your "new models at game release " campaing publicity! what a shame . Blizzard is now full of liars and lazy fucks!

You clearly need to take a nap. They have said for ages they may not have all the models out by release date. So it's not exactly news there.

By the look of it they should have most if not all models done by release anyway so probably not an issue.

If I have to wait a month on some characters, not the end of the world.

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by Vacashamanica

The game will be released in december and not even with all new models? WTF blizzard! you are fooling everyone then with your "new models at game release " campaing publicity! what a shame . Blizzard is now full of liars and lazy fucks!

I don't think 'more and more content' makes it harder for former players to come back. It's that it's more of the same content, which isn't that interesting to certain people.
Wow hasn't changed that much in all those years.
Add things that significantly change/improve existing gameplay, and they might get somewhere. Wod looks promising though.

It is psychological to some extent. A new player today would see 90 levels and think based off other games involving leveling that such a task would take far too long. An ex player from say BC or Wrath will remember how long it took for them to get to end level after the last previous point and think that because it's 2-3 expansions behind that it would also take a long time and opt out of it. In all things, the first impression is often the lasting one. Whether that impression is based off all the facts or not is largely irrelevant.

The game will be released in december and not even with all new models? WTF blizzard! you are fooling everyone then with your "new models at game release " campaing publicity! what a shame . Blizzard is now full of liars and lazy fucks!

except they already said the same thing in blizzcon, mentioning that, maybe, not all models will be ready at release but that they hope to finish before the release comes.

"They team also looked at significantly increasing experience rates rather than offering a boost, but it didn't feel great and the boost was the better option."

uhu charge for a boost or update the experience rates for free..

cant say im surprised they went with the money option

Originally the boost wasn't for money. It was changed to a 60 dollar for each 90 after free with WoD boost because a player at blizzcon pointed out that people would just buy multiple boxes to get more 90's.

That night elf rogues breasts are almost as ridiculous as her spines's ability to bend.

Originally Posted by Doomchicken

Originally the boost wasn't for money. It was changed to a 60 dollar for each 90 after free with WoD boost because a player at blizzcon pointed out that people would just buy multiple boxes to get more 90's.

Yes, I'm sure that's when it dawned on blizzard.

Originally Posted by Achaman

"They team also looked at significantly increasing experience rates rather than offering a boost, but it didn't feel great and the boost was the better option."

uhu charge for a boost or update the experience rates for free..

cant say im surprised they went with the money option

=|

If they reduced the experience needed to level any lower, you'd spend more time traveling to a zone that's relevant to your level than actually playing.

That night elf rogues breasts are almost as ridiculous as her spines's ability to bend.

Yes, I'm sure that's when it dawned on blizzard.

Considering they thought that making harder heroics would be a good idea for group finder groups and also that making a fuck ton of dailies would be good for end game content, it's not exactly too far fetched to believe they didn't think of it straight up.